Socioeconomic risk and the longitudinal child lifetime prevalence of child protection involvement.

Background: North American studies find that geographic indicators of disadvantage, such as concentrated poverty, significantly increase the risk of child protection involvement. Despite having one of the most extensive family support systems and progressive income redistribution policies in North America, the Canadian province of Québec still faces geographic variations in socioeconomic conditions that remain a major risk factor for child protection involvement.

Objective: This study asks how child protection involvement is distributed across socioeconomically distinct geographic areas of the province.

Recurrent child protection post-investigation services for First Nations children in the province of Quebec.

Background: The longitudinal trajectory of Indigenous children within child protection (CP) services, including their recurrent involvement, has yet to be documented.

Objectives: 1) To document whether First Nations children were at increased risk of a first recurrence of post-investigation CP services compared to children from the majority group. 2) To identify the characteristics associated with recurrence for First Nations children, and to compare these results to those for children from the majority group.

Homotypical and Heterotypical Intergenerational Continuity of Child Maltreatment: Evidence from a Cohort of Families Involved with Child Protection Services.

Child maltreatment (CM) in one generation can predict CM in the next generation, a concept known as intergenerational continuity. Yet, the form taken by the intergenerational continuity of CM remains unclear and fathers are mostly absent from this literature. This longitudinal study aimed to document patterns of intergenerational continuity of substantiated CM, on the maternal and paternal sides, by examining the presence of: homotypical CM, which is the same type of CM in both generations; and heterotypical CM, which is different CM types in both generations.

Childhood Prevalence of Involvement with the Child Protection System in Quebec: A Longitudinal Study.

The goal of this study, the first of its kind in Canada, was to estimate the child lifetime prevalence of child protection involvement in Quebec. Using administrative and population data spanning 17 years, we performed a survival analysis of initial incidents of child protection reports, confirmed reports, confirmation of a child's security or development being compromised, and placement outside the home for one day or more. We found that before reaching the age of 18 years, over 18% of children were reported to child protection at least once, one in every ten children (10.

Impacts of race on family reunification: A longitudinal study comparing exits from Quebec's child welfare system.

Background: In the United States, Black children spend more time in out-of-home placement than other children and are less likely to experience family reunification following involvement with child welfare services. Within Canada, very few studies have examined Black children's exits from the child welfare system and factors influencing their service trajectory.

Objective: This study, the first of its kind in Canada, uses longitudinal clinical administrative data to examine reunification outcomes for Black children following placement in out-of-home care.

Reunification trajectories in Quebec: Acknowledging chronic family challenges to support stability.

Background: While family reunification following out-of-home placement is a goal of child protection policy, complex family needs may not be met at the point that child protection systems reunify families. Permanency legislation creating maximum placement timeframes prompts questions regarding what families need to be supported in stably reunifying following a child's removal from the home.

Objective: We aim to identify clinical risk factors salient for initial placements and placements following a child reunifying with their family to inform successful reunification and improve children's stability.

Recurrent involvement with the Quebec child protection system for reasons of neglect: A longitudinal clinical population study.

Unlabelled: Studies in several jurisdictions have found that families become recurrently involved with child protection systems most frequently for reasons of neglect. Child protection involvement for reasons of neglect is shown to correlate with various socioeconomic vulnerabilities.

Objective: This study, the largest of its kind in Canada, examines when and for whom recurring conditions of neglect were most likely to occur for all children involved with child protection in the province of Quebec over a span of fifteen years.

Differences and disparities over time: Black and White families investigated by Ontario's child welfare system.

Background: Black-White disparities in child welfare involvement have been well-documented in the United States, but there is a significant knowledge gap in Ontario about how and when these disparities emerge.

Objective: This paper compares incidence data on Black and White families investigated by Ontario's child welfare system over a 20-year period.

Methods: Data from the first five cycles of the Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (OIS) (1993-2013) were used to examine trends in child maltreatment investigations involving Black and White families.

An examination of trends in child sexual abuse investigations in Ontario over time.

Background: Child sexual abuse (CSA) rates have been declining since the 1990s (Dunne et al., 2003; Finkelhor & Jones, 2004, 2012; Jones et al., 2001).

Temporary placements: A crisis-management strategy for physically abused children?

A large majority of children who are placed outside the family home experience temporary placements (between 1 to 60 days) at some point in time. Yet, information on the use of temporary placements remains fragmentary, with only occasional indirect references. This scant information does, however, suggests a particular link between physical abuse and temporary placements.

Placement Stability, Cumulative Time in Care, and Permanency: Using Administrative Data from CPS to Track Placement Trajectories.

: The Quebec Youth Protection Act was amended in 2007. The main goal of this reform was to improve placement stability for children who are removed from their home for their protection. Among several legal provisions introduced was the establishment of maximum age-specific durations of out-of-home care, after which a plan must be established to provide stability for children placed in substitute care by finding permanent homes for them.

How Can Data Drive Policy and Practice in Child Welfare? Making the Link in Canada.

Formal university-child welfare partnerships offer a unique opportunity to begin to fill the gaps in the child welfare knowledge base and link child welfare services to the realities of practice. With resources from a knowledge mobilization grant, a formal partnership was developed between the University of Toronto, clinicians, policy analysts, and researchers from child welfare agencies across Ontario. The key objectives of the grant included: (1) enhancing the capacity of service providers to access and analyze child welfare data to inform service and policy decisions; (2) integrating clinical expertise in service and policy decisions; and (3) developing a joint research agenda addressing high-priority knowledge gaps.

The Effects of Socioeconomic Vulnerability, Psychosocial Services, and Social Service Spending on Family Reunification: A Multilevel Longitudinal Analysis.

Socio-environmental factors such as poverty, psychosocial services, and social services spending all could influence the challenges faced by vulnerable families. This paper examines the extent to which socioeconomic vulnerability, psychosocial service consultations, and preventative social services spending impacts the reunification for children placed in out-of-home care. This study uses a multilevel longitudinal research design that draws data from three sources: (1) longitudinal administrative data from Quebec's child protection agencies; (2) 2006 and 2011 Canadian Census data; and, (3) intra-province health and social services data.

Physical and mental health of children with substantiated sexual abuse: Gender comparisons from a matched-control cohort study.

When compared to children from the general population, sexually abused children receive more medical services, both for physical and mental health problems. However, possible differences between sexually abused boys and girls remain unknown. The lack of control group in studies that find gender differences also prevents from determining if the differences are specific to sexual abuse or to gender.

Building research capacity in child welfare in Canada.

There is a surprising dearth of information about the services provided to the children and families being reported to Canadian child welfare authorities, little research on the efficacy of child welfare services in Canada, and limited evidence of new policies and programs designed to address these changes. This paper reports on a research capacity building initiative designed to address some of these issues. By fostering mutual co-operation and sharing of intellectual leadership, the Building Research Capacity initiative allows partners to innovate, build institutional capacity and mobilize research knowledge in accessible ways.

Shifting definitions of emotional maltreatment: an analysis child welfare investigation laws and practices in Canada.

Objective: Although there is growing evidence that the emotional dimensions of child maltreatment are particularly damaging, the feasibility and appropriateness of including emotional maltreatment (EM) in child welfare statutes continues to be questioned. Unlike physical and sexual abuse where investigations focus on discreet incidents of maltreatment, EM is not as easily defined and delimited. Through a review of legislation and child welfare investigation practices in Canada, this paper examines (1) whether Canadian child welfare services respond to EM with the same level of perseverance as with other forms of maltreatment and (2) the extent to which the introduction in 2008 of a more specific EM taxonomy distinguishes between EM and family problems that could lead to EM.